“Let me guess, you annoyed the hell out of George deliberately to make that happen?”
Sebastian nodded. “It was necessary. Carlton House is too open. They even let in tradespeople! And it was utterly boring there. I was right to change our location. One of the rebels learned of our whereabouts from a servant at Carlton House after pretending to be a supporter of Charles’s. The Prince should be warned his servants gossip too loosely.”
“Were the golden locks an exaggeration, too?”
“Blond is my natural color,” the king said. “Which I have sorely missed.”
Sebastian added, “Mine, too, but I don’t usually wear such fine attire and jewels. Our disguises began as soon as we were safely out of Feldland.”
“I suppose this means you’re going home now?”
Sebastian nodded. “Napoleon hasn’t gained the support he needs to spread his wings across Europe again, so as you said, it won’t be long before he is defeated again with the armies that did so previously gathering.”
Montgomery glanced at Rickles, who was still guarding the door before asking Sebastian, “Are there more rebels outside?”
“Quite a few, but I’ve warned this one.” Sebastian thumbed the man who had surrendered. “They will never be forgiven; they will court death if they return home.”
“We deal more harshly with assassins here,” Montgomery said to Charles. “Is banishment enough punishment for you?”
“Sebastian knows my mind. For a Feldlander to lose his home is a grave punishment.”
“Well then! With my job apparently ended, I will say I’m glad your difficulties are over, but I won’t say it’s been a pleasure.”
Sebastian jabbed his ribs. “You know you will miss us.”
“Not a bit,” Montgomery denied.
“And we shall miss you, Monty. You should visit us in Feldland someday, and bring your delightful wife.”
“I don’t have a wife.”
“You will.”
Montgomery wished he were as confident about that. But he glanced at the servant-turned-monarch again, annoyed that he’d been so perfectly fooled. “At least Feldland doesn’t have a buffoon for a king.”
Sebastian snorted. “It was a role!”
“One you played too easily,boy. I need a drink.” And then his eyes widened. “Good God, you let your king drive a coach?! That’s taking disguises a little too far, don’t you think?”
Sebastian laughed. “He insisted. And we will return to Carlton House tomorrow to await passage home. I do owe Prince George an apology as well as an introduction to his actual ally. How do you think he will take the news that it wasn’t actually Feldland’s king who bedeviled him?”
“Depends on his mood, so I’ll go with you to make light of it. If you want to leave here with your current disguises intact, it will avoid a lengthy explanation to the Blackburns, but that’s up to you. In either case, I’ll explain to Vanessa after you’re gone.”
“You ought to do more than that.”
“Yes, I know. And matchmaking doesn’t become you. Stick to bodyguarding.”
Chapter Fifty-four
VANESSA WAS PLEASED WHENshe saw Monty at the bottom of the stairs. Waiting for her? She was smiling before she reached him.
“Thank you for getting me back to my room last night. I must have been very tired not to have woken up when you carried me there.”
“It was an eventful day, but no need for thanks. It was my pleasure. I happen to like holding you in my arms.”
She hoped that was why he was suddenly leading them toward the garden again. To continue where they’d left off yesterday, before her father had found them there?
“D’you know if my father has returned yet?”
